Adding a 98lb weight is not a good idea. there would be 2-3 guys in a bracket on a weekly basis. not enough guys to fill the weight class. the weight class was basically 105 anyway with a 2 pound allowance.

Personally I like the new weights as the old were pretty light to middle of the road heavy. Never liked how the weights went from 171-189-215.

Would also like to see kids have to make scratch weight for every tournament and dual. One could argue the 2 pound rule makes wrestlers cut more weight than they typically would if they had to make scratch every time.

[quote=lazyman_1]Adding a 98lb weight is not a good idea.


Especially when your kid does not fall into this criteria.

Spoken by someone who never weighed less than 98lbs in high school.

It is legal to feed him beer, only if he is baling hay....

It is a growth allowance, and a very good idea...........

I know of a number of exceptional Kids Fed wrestlers that couldn't even break 98 pounds this year and it was tough on them. I know of one wrestler that struggled all year to make 103/105 and still looked much smaller than many of his opponents when it came time to wrestle. Bone density is good when you are entering the golden years of your life, but it can be detrimental when you are a young teenager trying to win a gold medal.

Parents and Coaches should blame themselves for letting weight cutting be detrimental. Kids should manage their weight with help from Coaches and Parents. I watched plenty of kids that would have been healthy 98's this season.

Coach,

I can see where you might have misinterpreted what I wrote. If I misinterpreted your post, then I apologize. What I meant to convey is that there are a lot of very talented wrestlers out there that struggle at 103 because they give up a lot of weight (because they only weigh 92-100 for example). Any wrestler that is managing their weight as well as they, their parents, and their coaches can, will still come up against wrestlers that look (and likely are) bigger than they are when they step on the mat.

You would think they would make these decisions based on statistics. Specifically team rosters with weight classes AND participants by weight in tournaments.

My opinion is that IF there was problem, it was that there were 18 - 26lb differences in some of the upper weights (171-189-215). People talk about the size difference for some 98lbers, if you look at 189, you can have guys that come in at a natural weight of 195 and wrestle 189 and guys coming in at 205 or 210 wrestling 189. You are always going to deal with that, but the heavys have fewer options.

I would agree that 215 and 285 are typically the weakest weight classes. Occasionally you'll have Zlatnik type big guy, but it is pretty uncommon. You see guys move from 215 to 285 because they know they can have more success. A couple of years a ago, the Eudora 189 lber went to 285 and took 6th at state.

The better solution would have been to change 189 to 185, add a 200 and move 215 to 220.

For the record, I always stay to watch the 285 matches. They are the most unpredictable.

They did base these off of statistics. These weights were the result of a few years worth of data collection on the part of wrestling teams and where wrestlers were weighing. Then, they took and divided the classes using a 7% weight difference throughout the new classes. I think it is a good idea, and not something they did "willy-nilly" (like most government programs).
If you really want to gripe and complain, why not just change to college weights anyway? Why doesn't college have a 98 lb. class, if they are so abundant?
Just my 2 cents!

Maybe you are too superficial to understand this, but I will try and explain anyway. My son is going to turn 14 at the end of July this year. He will be a freshman this year and weighs 85#'s. Part of the problem is that he has a bad birthday, the other part is that he has not started puberty yet, which would typically enhance his weight. The Schreiner family genetically is small, no one has ever wrestled over 140 lbs their senior year, and this is quite a few of us. There is basically no other sport in which we will have success with due to our size. Other people have noted on here that, if you are bigger by nature, then your options have opened up. Putting the smallest class even bigger, once again limits our options further. So to end my post, the comment about having the lowest weight be the same as college is really ignorant. The difference is puberty, maturity and flat out 4 years difference.

Yes, wrestling is missing a major area of participation - the light kids. Yes, not every school would have a 98 lb kid, so, I know many that would and our school would be one!!! Once you get past the top 25% of the schools, the rest of the teams seldom field an entire squad. We should focus on those areas where we can grow. And, another point, the new weights eliminate a middle weight. Look at the brackets for Fargo in Jrs at 140, 145. Look at USA nationals at cadet at 140, 145, and 152. Then look at the higher brackets and tell me why we lost a middle weight inorder to accommodate an extra higher weight. No way to explain the thinking involved other then a bunch of people making decisions who are totally out of touch with reality. Another reason we need a wrestling union, so we can demand negotiations prior to implemenation.

If they did the research and the numbers are accurate, it's hard to argue. I have never seen wrestling as a small man's sport. I think the beauty is that it is an all man's sport, regardless of build or size. Because of that, I think the 98 or 100lb weight class is a legitimate request. Obviously there would be fewer 98lbers at 18 than there are at 14.

I think what kills the sport is you have uneducated parents that think they are dieticians. They freak out if there kid doesn't get to eat so much food, but in reality if you stick to the actual portion sizes for things...you will be fine. Maybe get a small fry and a grilled chicken instead of the Super Sized Cheddar Soaked Potato sticks and Quadruple BiPass Burger.

Also maybe go for a 30 minute walk/jog in the evening (parents can join in) and that way in the mornings you are able to eat breakfast that may be a little larger then normal.

It is not uncommon for a small thirteen (13) or fourteen (14) year old high school freshman to qualify for the 98 lb. weight classification. I had three (3) sons who would have qualified for this weight.

It would be highly unusual for a seventeen (17) or eighteen (18) year old college freshman to qualify for a 98 lb. weight classification however there are very rarely any collegiate forfeits at the minimum 125 lb. weight classification.

And I can bring in Scott Walker as our commissioner.

Richard, do you think Walker could help you put together a schedule for the State Freestyle tourney? But, I would imagine he would be right with you on not releasing the wrestler list until the last moment. Keep everything secret, the members should have no input or knowledge until YOU decide.

The tournament director is charged with determining the schedule for the tournament. I am not the tournament director.

Same reply as above!

You are aware there is an annual members meeting. At the annual meeting the members have the ability to provide input. The organization makes every effort to be transparent. I am unaware of any secrets and if you have any questions - Ask?

I do understand that there are smaller kids out there, and that bumping the lightest class up 3 lbs. is a big deal when you are that small. I have 3 kids, and they are all small. I do understand your concern that your son will only be 85 lbs. as a freshman, and I know that the Schreiner's are smaller, as I have had the priviledge to coach Cole. I can say this about the Schreiner's though: They won't let size determine their work ethic. Regardless of the weight, they will work hard and you will know you've wrestled your best when the match ends. I meant no disrespect, but in my 18 years of coaching, the 103 was almost always a 4-5 person bracket at Regionals. This year, our Regional placers at 103 went 0-8 with 7 falls, and 2 were girls. There wasn't a winning records in the Regional bracket of 5. With the 106, maybe this will change, and the quality of competition will increase.
All that I meant in my earlier post was that there were 3-4 years worth of research in KS and across the nation to find where the most participants were at. Obviously, as a result of their data collection, there needed to be a change and they came up with these weights, based on their findings. The weights were then distributed by a 7% differential between them.

A weight class needs to be well represented by Freshman - Senior wrestlers.

Didn't Junior and Cadets just add 5-6 wights classes in recent years?